1/10 Baby Bootlegger Build

[AndyKunz]

Several years ago I promised my wife that I'd build her a big mahogany boat for the top of the piano. She's a patient lady! What got me off my duff was that she said I could buy a turbine... as soon as I got rid of a 4' cube of airplane kits and built her the boat I promised. Within 5 minutes both boys were assigned kits :) Last night I started on her boat.

The plans are Garry Finlay's, which you may find on the Astec Marine site. Garry sized them to fit nicely on E-sized paper. You can download the PDFs (2 pages) and have them printed for just a few dollars at Staples or Kinkos. Note that Garry is in the process of updating the plans as I find minor issues. They are fine for building - we're just working to make things perfect.


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I began with a trued plywood base that is oversize for the boat. I added a straight centerline, then marked off the locations of each bulkhead.


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Then I used a triangle to make a pair of lines 3/16" apart (the thickness of the wood) across the width of the plank and labeled each pair of lines with the corresponding bulkhead letter.

So much for Monday night.

[Ocean Racer]

so no videos of her floating along the pond.....sniff...sniff

[AndyKunz]

My daughter Lena is going to be helping me with this build. I forgot to mention that last night we also joined two 3/16" sheets to form a 6" wide piece. I used hard balsa because I want to have strong bulkheads. You'll see the piece in the pictures below.


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Tonight we started out by laying the keel out on a sheet of 3/16" x 3" x 36" hard. It was necessary to join a piece at the bow to make it tall enough, and to add about 1/4" down the center to make it deep enough. If you use 4" wood you won't have a problem but you'll have more waste.


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Next we cut out all the bulkheads from Sheet 2 of the plans (I printed two Sheet 2's - you'd be smart to do the same). Using 3M #77 spray, they were laid out on the 6" wide plank we made last night. They fit nicely, we very little waste.

I didn't take a shot specifically of it, but in the picture above in the top right corner you can see that I have two pieces of 3/16" stacked together (a few dabs of glue between them) and clamps. They are going to be the deck sheer and the chine pieces. I had to remove a moon-shaped piece and relocate it to the top so that I could cut both items out of two pieces of wood without splicing in virgin pieces.

Tomorrow we will show you how to get long, thin paper pieces glued down straight on a sheet like that.


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Next, I cut out the bulkheads from the 6" wide sheet. First I rough cut them (1/8" - 1/4" oversize) just to separate them into manageable chunks.


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Still using the jigsaw, I then trimmed them much closer to the lines (within 1/32"). Note that the notches for the keel, chine, and sheer are not cut out yet. Doing so would have made those corners too fragile.


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Next, I sanded each piece down to the line. (In the background you can see a 54" Comet Taylorcraft that I'm also building with my son Caleb, but not doing a thread about).


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When done, you end up with a stack of bulkheads looking like this. Thursday night we will be cutting out the notches.

Andy

[Steven Vaccaro]

Must be nice to work on boats again!

[AndyKunz]

Yup. Nice to work with Lena too. She's learning the camera pretty quickly and learning all the terms for the hull parts. I'm working on 2 planes at the same time, too. One is a magazine construction article, the other for flying indoors at the Armory this winter. AND doing an electronics consulting project.

AND writing about it all.

Andy

[Jr Branham]

Andy,
Is that your work shop area??? Looks more comfy than a cold garage....

Jr. B

[JimClark]

Great job on the pictures Lena oh and you to Andy nice to see you making sawdust again
What you using for Mahogany?
What are you going to use for power of the BBL?

Jim

[AndyKunz]

Jr - it's the unheated garage, except for a small ceramic heater that takes the edge off. I think I'm going to be doing a lot of modeling in my office this winter. I don't think the walls are insulated and the garage door has big gaps around the top and sides to let the cold in. Pretty shoddy installation, imho, but I'm just renting for the year so I can't complain.

Jim - I bought a whole bunch of 1/16x4x48 mahogany a few years ago specifically for this boat. I'll need to cut a lot of it down to make strips to plank. I just need to buy a 10" table saw to cut it.

I'm not sure if it will be powered. Gail said it doesn't need to be, and it would take a lot of time out of the project, but I will probably build it so that it CAN be powered. It would have BJ26 power system in it, and room for a 3S/4S pack, and a Spektrum radio.

Kmot put me in touch with a fittings place. When we get closer I'll order and see how they look. I need a scale-like prop for it as well. I have photos of the real boat from the Clayton regatta, so I'll do my best on the details. I doubt it will be of ERCU quality, though.

Andy

[JimClark]

How about sharing the link for the fitting's place?
And I don't care about ERCU quality anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just like building models and probably the one thing that stopped me from building a BBL was the fittings.
I have a bunch of really good Mahogany and just need to cut it down into a good size for making planks as right now ie is in big chunks.

Jim

Jr - it's the unheated garage, except for a small ceramic heater that takes the edge off. I think I'm going to be doing a lot of modeling in my office this winter. I don't think the walls are insulated and the garage door has big gaps around the top and sides to let the cold in. Pretty shoddy installation, imho, but I'm just renting for the year so I can't complain.

Jim - I bought a whole bunch of 1/16x4x48 mahogany a few years ago specifically for this boat. I'll need to cut a lot of it down to make strips to plank. I just need to buy a 10" table saw to cut it.

I'm not sure if it will be powered. Gail said it doesn't need to be, and it would take a lot of time out of the project, but I will probably build it so that it CAN be powered. It would have BJ26 power system in it, and room for a 3S/4S pack, and a Spektrum radio.

Kmot put me in touch with a fittings place. When we get closer I'll order and see how they look. I need a scale-like prop for it as well. I have photos of the real boat from the Clayton regatta, so I'll do my best on the details. I doubt it will be of ERCU quality, though.

Andy

[icelert]

Andy,
Nice job on the project-it's great that your doing this not only for your wife and with your daughter but also for taking the time to share it with us.

A suggestion for cutting the mahogany pieces, it's cheaper and safer than a table saw, I made nice .2" wide mahogany strips with my current boat project the 66 Bud.

http://olfablades.stores.yahoo.net/9651.html

This cutter is also the cat's meow for cutting lightweight fiberglass and especially carbon fabric!

Bryan

[Darin Jordan]

... my current boat project the 66 Bud.

Bryan... I'M NOT WORTHY... I'M NOT WORTHY!

REALLY fine work, dude! That's amazing...

Can't wait to see more Andy! COOL project!

[AndyKunz]

Click on the table saw link, Bryan It ain't no Harbor Freight! I need it for ripping balsa stock in the future - an investment. All those good terms. I need a Forrester blade for it too - no sense having a good saw and using a $10 blade in it.

I use those blades you linked already. They're great for glass - in fact I had to buy my wife replacement blades for hers back when I was manufacturing hulls.

I'll give it a try on the mahogany but I don't expect success. The wood is ten years old and very dry. I'm going to have to increase its humidity just to be able to use it at all. (My Dad's a cabinetmaker so we have the tools to do that properly).

Andy

[Doug Smock]

Cool project Andy, keep up the good work!

Doug

[Avanti]

Very cool, I was thinking about building one of these after seeing the link in docjets thread.
I will be watching your progress.

John

[AndyKunz]

First item tonight - link to the fittings (thanks to Kmot). http://www.wetgoose.com/ His name is Ken Valk. I have not yet contact him, but I trust Kmot.

OK, on to tonight's progress. Lena and I continued working making parts. The other night I left the chine and sheer rough stock drying under weights. Tonight we put the paper templates on and cut them out.

Putting long, thin paper templates down straight requires use of a little trick. Prior to cutting the strips out of the large paper, I made a straight line down them using my 2' straightedge. You can see it near the pencil in the photo below.


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Using the straightedge to verify that I haven't deformed the paper on the rough cut blank, I scribbled dark areas about every 6" around the perimeter of the paper template.


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Next, I take the long strips over to the spray backstop (an old set of plans) that I put on the garage door and use #77 to make them sticky. Man do I look fat in that one!


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Next I carefully lay them down on the blank, and use the straightedge to verify that I haven't twisted the paper any. If you do this quickly, the #77 will allow you to peel up the paper to get the positioning correct. I then allow it to dry for a few minutes before cutting on the jigsaw.


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After cutting out the keel (which is laid out using the same technique), I marked on the edges where each bulkhead will go. I then peel off the paper and label each set of marks for the bulkname name. I also marked the entry/exit locations of the driveshaft. These will be drilled out with a 1/8" bit BEFORE we go any farther with the keel. Also the rudder post hole. Having pilot holes will come in handy when it comes time to install the hardware.

After we finished those steps, we cut the notches in the bulkheads. No pix - I figure that's self-explanatory.

Tomorrow night we will be adding the tabs that lift the bulkheads above our building plank. We are almost done "making a kit" so we can begin construction.

Andy

[Ocean Racer]

looks pretty cool how long do you think it will take to complete this?

[AndyKunz]

IF I can keep on it, it should be done mid-January. I won't be able to do some things right away which will delay finishing. We moved this summer and I couldn't bring along a lot of supplies like West Systems epoxy, so I have to save $$ to buy a new gallon. Same for the varnish to finish it up.

Planking will take me a while because I can't use CA any more, so it'll probably take 2-3 weeks just for each of the two planking layers. I'm working on an airplane and a boat with Caleb, an airplane with Ian, and an airplane for a magazine article - plenty to keep busy.

Andy

[AndyKunz]

We didn't do anything on the boat last night. My wife borrowed a season of The Untouchables from the library so we all stayed up late to watch it.


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I started this morning by cutting up the scraps from earlier steps into pieces 3/4" x 1-1/2". These will become tabs to loft the bulkheads above the building board.


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These were then attached to the bulkheads and allowed to dry. Note that I and H are different than the others.


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The approximate location of each bulkhead was marked on the sheers and chines. This was done to look "fuzzy" so I'd remember it was approximate. (I have a short memory :D ).

[AndyKunz]

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Next I sanded the notches for keel, chines, and sheers to fit snugly at the marked locations. A snug fit will make things easier in later steps. The sanding was done with a large nail file.


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I don't like to cut the keel in two, so I notched it to accept the stuffing box. I chose to use a 1/8" ID tube instead of the 1/4" tube Garry recommends, but I'm using a different power system as well. This is one of those times when you need to make a choice about your own power system. Note also that I didn't extend the stuffing box below where the planking will be. This will make finishing easier. Should I decide to change the stuffing box to a larger size, the existing one can be removed with heat.

We are finally done making kit parts! Time to start BUILDING!


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Each bulkhead is positioned on the keel at the location marked on it back at the beginning.


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I had to modify the tab on A so that the sheers could butt against it. The marks tell me exactly where they will be located when aligned properly.


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Bulkhead I needs to be positioned properly too. I like to insert the chines at this time so that everything will be snugly linked together. The chines butted up snugly fore and aft as well as within the slots. Taking your time to make true parts pays off!


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After these components are assembled (but not yet glued), make sure that they are all perpendicular to the building board AND to the keel. The snug fit will allow you to adjust things and have them stay put. After you've done each bulkhead once, go back and verify just in case something was jostled.

[AndyKunz]

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Glue the tabs to the building board. Align the keel on one side of the drawn center line, and move it fore/aft until the bulkheads align with their lines.


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Then make sure your keel is still straight, and allow it to dry.

You may have noticed that I didn't glue any of the boat parts together yet. That's so that I will be able to double check them again after the glue to the board is dried. It's much easier to straighten things if they aren't glued together. This gluing is easily accomplished with thin CA wicked into the joints. I can't use it, so I will just have to work some wood glue into the joints.

At the same time I will glue down the chines, then sand in preparation for planking. I will also be looking for someone at work who will let me rip a bunch of 1/8" balsa into 1/4" and 1/2" strips.

Andy

[Doug Smock]

Looking good Andy!!
I'm a little curious why you can't use CA anymore?

Doug

[AndyKunz]

Allergic. If I catch a whiff, I have symptoms of a head cold for three days. I developed it making UL-1 (the real ones, not the imitations from AC) and Electric Thunder hulls.

Andy

[Rex R]

I understand that the 'foam safe' ca's cause fewer problems* for those allergic to regular ca.
*note that I said fewer problems, NOT zero problems.

[AndyKunz]

Exactly. It also doesn't bond balsa as well in my experience.

With diluted wood glue, the water will swell the joint and the glue will, of course, glue it. Then it will be double-glued and all will be well.

Andy

[Rex R]

heheh I use wood glue(white) for my wood boats. I figure if after 6 or more layers of paint it isn't sealed...I got bigger problems :-)(I do seal the inside of the boats w/ epoxy)

[Avanti]

CA has worked great for me, but I also fillet the insides with epoxy.

[AndyKunz]

Aliphatic resin (the type of wood glue I use) is only water soluble until dry. Then it resists water nicely. Other wood glues (PVA, like Elmers white) stay water soluble even after drying.

This will be sealed inside and out also.

The wood glue is diluted (lots of water) to cause the wood to swell, giving a mechanical bond in addition to the adhesive. It's the same idea used on wooden ships.

Andy

[Kmot]

I developed the same type of allergic reation to CA fumes. Only it lasted for several days, felt like I had asthma as well as a severe cold.

I still use CA. But I bought a respirator. Made all the difference. Now, whenever I use anything stinky, I breathe sweet clean air instead because I have this thing on my face:

http://www.coopersafety.com/item/100...espirator.aspx

[AndyKunz]

Thanks for the respirator info, Tom. Being claustrophobic makes them impractical for me, but there may be another reader for whom they are an answer. Slow building is fun too!

OK, so I hope you all had a happy time with family, thanking the Good Lord for His blessings on our lives, our families, and our nation. With all the hubbub I didn't get to post these pictures from Wednesday, so here goes.


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The next step was to glue all the bulkheads to the keel and deck sheers. I then added the chine pieces and pinned them in place. A clamp holds the bow together.


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The pressure plate is glued and pinned in location also. Make sure it's level!


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This thing is starting to really look boat-like, even upside down!

The next step will be to sand all the bottom and side surfaces to get smooth flowing lines in preparation for planking. I will do the sanding outdoors using a 12" sanding block. We are still having nice-enough weather here (today was clear, 35, and winds 5-10) to go flying, so that's taking precedence.

Today I also cut a bunch of 1/8" balsa sheets into 1/4"' and 1/2" wide strips on a table saw with a friend from work. We used a 200-tooth 10" blade turning at 3500 RPM. Now THAT was a dusty operation, even with the dust collector running! (I also ordered my saw - they are $80 off at Sears thru tomorrow!)

We cut way more wood than was necessary to cover the boat. This will allow me to use the best pieces for each position. Remember, we want to use pieces which do not try to twist the hull. We will be using comparable pieces for opposing parts, so we may not have as much usable wood as we thought.

Andy

[Flying Scotsman]

Way to go Andy...superb workmanship...your gut and mine look about the same. It is great to see you are back into boat building.

Douggie